Integrated circuit devices are used today in a broad variety of control applications, which include safety critical use cases. Any fault, which occurs in the integrated circuit device, which forms part of a safety critical system or controls components of a safety critical system, could lead to a dangerous situation. For example, an erroneous sensor input to a safety critical system power could result in injury or harm of a user of another person. Safety critical systems such as may be found in transportation systems such as avionic systems, automotive systems and the like, may not be inherently fault-tolerant to erroneous data. In such cases, additional safety circuitry may be employed by these systems which, in the event of erroneous data due to erroneous sensor input values for example, respond in a way that at least minimizes the risk of damage to the system or harm to a user and/or other persons within the sphere of activity of the safety critical system (and the apparatus under control thereof). Such safety circuits may in themselves be system on chip devices, sometimes called “failsafe circuits” or “failsafe machines” comprising various functionalities and/or functional circuits or modules such as monitoring circuitry, fault detection circuits, fault reporting circuitry and failsafe backup operation modes.
Although the safety requirements are one main aspect to be met by safety critical systems, the increasing complexity of applications carried out in safety critical systems has also to be considered. In particular, there is a need for a resource and computing power efficient verification of input data to applications of safety critical systems.